Mempool API

Beginner's Pick Cryptocurrency / No Auth Required Beginner HTTPS
Free to Use
67 C
Measured Score 0 50 100 Speed 24/30 Consistency 4/20 Security 20/20 Browser access 15/15 Transparency 4/15 TESTED 2026-08-10

Overview

Mempool.space is a Bitcoin blockchain explorer API that focuses on real-time transaction fee estimation and mempool (pending transaction pool) analytics. It provides recommended fee rates in sat/vByte so developers can help users set appropriate transaction fees for timely confirmation. No API key or authentication is needed, making it one of the most accessible Bitcoin APIs for beginners.

Beginner Tip

Use the /api/v1/fees/recommended endpoint to instantly get the current Bitcoin fee recommendation — no sign-up required, just call the URL and use the "fastestFee" value to set an appropriate fee for urgent transactions.

Measurement Record

What actually happened when we called this API from our own infrastructure. Every value below was recorded by the request, not copied from the provider's documentation.

Request
GET https://mempool.space/api/v1/fees/recommended
Result
HTTP 200 · application/json · 74 bytes
Response time
46 ms (median of 3) · fastest 27 ms
Transport
TLSv1.3 · TLS_AES_256_GCM_SHA384 · certificate issued by Sectigo Limited
Browser CORS
Allowed — Access-Control-Allow-Origin: *
Served by
nginx
Recorded
2026-08-10

Fields Returned

Top-level fields present in the response we captured, with the type and value we actually received.

Field Type Value received
fastestFee integer 4
halfHourFee integer 3
hourFee integer 1
economyFee integer 1
minimumFee integer 1

Captured Response

Captured from a real request to https://mempool.space/api/v1/fees/recommended on 2026-08-10. Long arrays and nested objects are truncated to keep the shape readable.

JSON Response · Captured
{
  "fastestFee": 4,
  "halfHourFee": 3,
  "hourFee": 1,
  "economyFee": 1,
  "minimumFee": 1
}

Field Reference

fastestFee Recommended fee in sat/vByte to get confirmed in the next block (~10 minutes).
halfHourFee Fee rate in sat/vByte for confirmation within approximately 30 minutes.
hourFee Fee rate in sat/vByte for confirmation within approximately 1 hour.
economyFee Lower-priority fee rate in sat/vByte; confirmation may take several hours.
minimumFee Minimum fee rate accepted by the network; transactions below this are likely rejected.

Implementation Example

Calls a real endpoint of this API. Replace any placeholder credentials with your own key.

Request
const url = "https://mempool.space/api";
const response = await fetch(url);
if (!response.ok) throw new Error(`Request failed: ${response.status}`);
const data = await response.json();
console.log(data);

What Can You Build?

Note: These code examples are AI-generated and unverified. Always refer to the official API documentation for accurate usage.

How This API Fails

We deliberately sent this API a broken request and recorded exactly what came back on 2026-08-10. Knowing the shape of an error before you hit it makes error handling much easier to write.

HTTP 404 Requesting a path that does not exist text/html

Returned an HTML error page rather than JSON — worth knowing if your client assumes every response can be parsed as JSON.

Common Errors & Troubleshooting

Generated guidance based on this API's documentation, not observed by us. Treat it as a starting point and check against the provider's own error reference.

CORS error in browser Mempool.space does not support CORS for all endpoints, blocking direct browser fetch calls.
Make requests from your backend server instead of the browser, or use the mempool.space JavaScript library which handles this.
404 Not Found for transaction ID Querying a transaction that is not yet indexed or the TX ID has a typo.
Verify the 64-character hex transaction ID is complete and correct; newly broadcast transactions may take a moment to appear.
Rate limited (HTTP 429) Sending too many requests in a short period from the same IP address.
Cache fee recommendations locally for at least 30 seconds — fees do not change that rapidly, so frequent polling is unnecessary.

Measured Score Breakdown

Live HTTP request to the API endpoint

Speed 24/30
Consistency 4/20
Security 20/20
Browser access 15/15
Transparency 4/15
Endpoint Response Time 46ms

Fully tested on Aug 10, 2026

Technical Specifications

Auth No Auth
HTTPS REQUIRED
CORS NO
Category Cryptocurrency
Difficulty Beginner
Endpoint last called: 2026-08-10

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